Online Business Model Overview: Local Marketing Consulting

There are many ways to make money online – it can be quite overwhelming to find your place; a business that excites you enough to make you want to jump out of bed every morning to build. So how do you choose one that’s right for you? In today’s post, I will cover the Local Marketing Consulting business model.

A local marketing consultant helps local business owners with marketing their business online. These business owners could be restaurants, attorneys, roofers, plumbers, chiropractors, dentists, accountants, etc. Any business that operates in a local community qualifies as a “local business”. They are often very good at what they do, but marketing is not usually something they are particularly good at. They need help because they don’t have the time to learn it themselves, and the old methods (Yellow pages, newspaper and even tv ads) are no longer providing them with a steady stream of new prospects and customers.

All businesses need new prospects to turn into customers in order to stay in business. Marketing gets that done, and can be very effective if done right online. So, what kind of marketing help can you offer? There’s website design & maintenance, logo design, search engine optimization (seo), video creation & video marketing services, advertising (pay per click, Facebook, YouTube), email marketing and social media management.

You might be thinking, “but I don’t know how to do any of those!” and that’s ok. The great thing is, you don’t have to. You probably already know more than you think you do, and more than most local business owners. The reason I say you don’t have to, is you can sell a service, then outsource the work to those that know how to provide the service. That truly is the best way to service your offline local business owner clients because you can continue to grow your business and not be bogged down by the doing the actual work that is time-consuming.

You’ll be tempted to save the money you’d have to pay an outsourced worker to do the work, and do it yourself. The money you’d “save”, is eaten up by spending all your time doing the work, and you won’t have time to look for new clients. Remember, I said all businesses need new prospects and that includes your business.

So select a service you want to provide, and begin prospecting for clients for that service. When you land a client, immediately begin building your team of outsourced workers to fulfill that service. Some services will only require 1 person to do the work. Other services may require more. What you charge your new client is up to you, but keep in mind the reality that well-paid outsourced workers will stay with you, whereas underpaid will not.

Once you have clients, you need to figure out a way to maximize the services you offer that client in order to provide a monthly income for your business. For example, if you sell a website design service to a business, you know that client will need someone to maintain their website, update content, etc. A monthly maintenance fee would cover that. How much you charge isn’t as relevant as keeping that client happy for the long term.

Most local business owners prefer to have 1 “go-to” person to handle all of the online marketing. So you need to expand your offerings to include anything a local business owner needs to market their business online. If you stick to just one area, you could easily be replaced by a competitor that does offer what the client needs. Be sure to track the results you’re getting for your client, and provide them with a report at least each month. This gives you the opportunity to speak with them on a regular basis, develop that relationship, and become the trusted marketing arm of their business. They will get calls from other marketers, so taking a pro-active position right from the start, will go a long ways to keeping them happy and saying no to other marketers.

You can make a good income as a local marketing consultant, but it does take work to land your first client, keep them happy while prospecting for others. Stay focused on your business, stay away from “shiny object syndrome” (thinking there’s an easier way to make money) and provide exceptional service to your clients.